이 기사는 2020년 02월 12일 08시00분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korea’s financial institutions show strong interest in global investment firm KKR’s 15 trillion won worth blind-pool fund. While Korea Investment & Securities became the first investor of the fund, more commercial banks and securities firms are expected to follow suit.

According to investment banking (IB) industry sources on February 7, Korea Investment & Securities has decided to invest in KKR Asian Fund IV, which focuses on Asia Pacific region. The target fund size is 12.5 billion dollars (around 14.8 trillion won) and 25 percent of the total is expected to be spent on the domestic market.

“This is the first time that Korea Investment & Securities invests in a fund that is created by KKR. I heard that the brokerage firm attempted to invest in KKR’s Asian Fund III in 2017 although it fell through. Domestic commercial banks and Samsung Securities invested in the KKR’s blind-pool fund in the past and they are seemingly getting ready to invest in the latest fund,” said an IB industry insider.

Domestic financial institutions flock to KKR’s blind-pool fund in a bid to enhance their relationship with KKR. M&A market watchers say that unlike institutional investors, including pension funds, mutual aids and insurance companies who seek returns, domestic financial institutions aim to take part in M&A deals that KKR executes and acquisition financing derived from the deals.

“I heard that Korea Investment & Securities will invest tens of billions of won in the KKR Asian Fund IV. Considering the total fund size of 15 trillion won, the brokerage firm may want to enhance its relationship with KKR, rather than earning returns,” said one of the M&A industry sources.

“KKR has done a lot of deals, including acquisition financing, with domestic commercial banks. Korea Investment & Securities is likely to strengthen its relationship with KKR by investing in the fourth Asian Fund,” said one of the M&A industry sources.

In KKR’s exit from the world’s top copper foil maker KCF Technologies (KCFT), which is the firm’s latest and most popular deal, Kookmin Bank acted as a lead arranger on the acquisition financing while Woori Bank and Korea Development Bank (KDB) served as joint arrangers. When KKR launched refinanced the acquisition of KCFT in the first quarter of 2019, a total of six financial institutions, including Kookmin Bank, participated in the deal.

Ten months after the refinancing, KB Securities and Mirae Asset Daewoo arranged KKR’s recapitalization of KCFT. In 2019, KKR sold 100 percent of KCFT to SKC, a manufacturer of chemicals and materials, for 1.2 trillion won, four times its purchase price.

An Asian fund of the size KKR is targeting would be the biggest raised by the New York-based firm, whose previous record was 9.3 billion dollars in 2017.

(By reporters Kim Byung-yoon and Han Hee-yeon)